Day 25, Sunday Art Day!

We had to get up early today, our daughter made plans to go out and see friends, and that meant we all got up for early breakfast, the plan was to have a decent walk, and enjoy the day. But for some reason, we both felt a bit Meh, so the walk suffered, which is to say, we didn’t go. I popped to Tesco for some supplies for this evenings meal, but other than that, we were properly lazy today.

Our son has watched TV for most of the day, Hubby has a new driving game for the Xbox, so that’s been put through its paces, he also has a funky app for his phone so he can have a “heads up” display for speed etc. Its quite cool, and its fun to hear people like Anthony Davidson via a game. I have spent the day play with art supplies.

Todays journal page, in the Archer and Olive notebook is a picture drawn by me, and coloured using Stabillo Carbothello Pastel Pencils. Hubby bought them for me for Christmas and today is the first time I have really had a proper play. I haven’t a clue how to use pastels so I had to listen to a YouTube video. It was really informative but I definitely need to play and learn some more. The notebook paper fared well with the pastel, but it doesn’t have much tooth so i guess it will ultimately just rub off if I don’t seal it. (hairspray??)

After this I decided to play with my ScrawlrBox that arrived yesterday. I absolutely love Watercolours, they are my first real art play time and it’s what started me off being an “artist” so when I opened the box I was excited. A set of 5 watercolour paints from Daler & Rowney, a Waterbrush from Derwent as well as some watercolour paper and a couple of chinagraph pencils. A watercolour white came as part of the set, one of the things I have learnt is a watercolourist doesn’t use white, you use water to create value. So I’m not sure why this is part of the set but I suppose it will allow tonal change rather than value change, but honestly I don’t think I am likely to use it very much.

The challenge is “birds of a feather” its sounds exciting and something I can get my teeth into. These are all of the images I have created using the kit today.

Also, I remember I have paid for membership to The Watercolour Academy, but I haven’t really enjoyed the teaching style so I have ignored it quite a bit, however I signed in today and did this lesson albeit on silent and slowed down by 50%. The one thing I have learnt from her is that every colour can be mixed from the 3 primaries and so I am a lot less afraid to mix colour now than I was when I started. This is meant to be a soap bubble with reflections. I don’t think it looks like it, but I guess that’s my fault for not actually listening and just trying to follow the video silently. I did use the white to create the reflection whereas she used gouache, I couldn’t be bothered to go and get it, yes I was THAT lazy!

Well that’s it for today, everything is packed away, we have our evening coffee and the TV remote is on hand. Until tomorrow, TTFN!

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.

Day 24, Saturday

We had a lazy start to the day, I spent a couple of hours reading and commenting on blogs whilst drinking my coffee in bed. Whilst reading Amy’s blog, I decided I knew what today’s art page would be about, once I could get to the art table. Amy mentioned a prompt list she had seen on Pinterest, all about “Me, Myself and I”. I decided I could do this, Amy talked about some of the prompts in her blog so I decided I would journal with photos. I spent the afternoon looking for answers to the prompt and appropriate images either from my own stash or Google searches.

April 24th page 1
April 24th page 1
April 24th page 2 & 3
April 24th page 2 & 3
April 24th Page 4 & 5
April 24th Page 4 & 5

I initially glued a ladies face to the page, then gesso’d before cutting around her. The plan was to use the image to doodle and make the spread be more about her face. However the pages took on a own life of their own and in the end I used 3 acrylic paints to make the pages, mixing up the layers and ensuring they were cohesive but different. Also I added a layer of shimmering gold to each page. Hubby saw the first page when it was painted, and he said it had an Indian feel to it. He then didn’t see it again until they were all finished. I think I surprised him a bit! Each picture represents one of the prompts on the list.

Saturday Night Food Truck

We regularly get a Spicery subscription box. Its something we have done for years after I gave it as a first Christmas present for hubby way back when, and we have continued getting it as the spices and recipes are amazing. Mostly we have date nights, but every so often we get a food truck that the children get to enjoy too. Tonight was on of those nights. We are really lucky in that they are not fussy eaters and they do like a bit of spice in their food. Hubby tends to do the cooking for this, I am usually on hand to help chop veggies and mostly do the washing up, it works this way especially as its mostly a clean kitchen by the time dinner is served and kids have less after dinner clear up to deal with.

Tonight we had Korean Fried Chicken with Ssamjang and Kimchi Slaw. Hubby spent the afternoon preparing the food. Deep fried coated chicken in a sticky sweet and sour sauce, sushi rice, pickled salad veg, spicy slaw all on a bed of lettuce leaves. Our boy that does not really like salad veg yet was the first to finish, licking his lips and exclaiming how great it was. We all finished with very full bellies and no-one wanted a dessert – a very rare occurrence!

Korean Fried Chicken with Ssamjang and Kimchi Slaw
Korean Fried Chicken with Ssamjang and Kimchi Slaw

After dinner, we watched a movie. I can’t actually believe it but I introduced Hubby as well as the kids to Edward ScissorHands. I guess that’s what I get for being married to a man 12 years my junior, every so often I get to surprise him with a decent movie from “my day” ha ha. Everyone really enjoyed it, and our daughter, who is very into the Greek & Roman Gods and mythology declared it was “the same story as Hades and Persephone”. I cant wait to hear what her classics teacher has to say about that, but it was good listening to her reasons for it.

Anyway, its 8:30pm, I have been yawning my head off for ages (mostly due to an early evening glass of wine I am sure and nothing at all to do with a late night last night!), So I shall sign off for now and see you all tomorrow!

Enjoy your evening!

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.

Day 23 St Georges Day

I’m a bit late writing this today, its been one of those sort of days.

I decided to go to Matalan this morning, our Daughter needs some new clothes for school and Matalan is a good place for her. She’s too grown up for kids clothes now so teeny tiny women’s clothes are needed. I’m not jealous of her teeny tiny waist line, I promise I’m not (said through gritted teeth ha ha!). No honestly she is a wonderful size and long may she be the beauty that she is. Anyway I digress. After Matalan I just HAD to go to Hobbycraft, it’s right next door after all so it would be rude not to! I was in there far longer than the clothes shop that’s for sure! I was pretty good and didn’t spend a fortune, I got some bargains, mostly stuff I “needed” (who am I kidding) I didn’t NEED those lettering stencils, nor the items from the reduced pile although I bagged some bargain cotton fabric for journal making and I got a freebie Giant Posca pen in bright pink but did I really need the notebooks when I make my own? Did I need the card stock or the inkpads (Not Tim Holtz as it was silly expensive even in the sale) But I did pick up a £2 pack of mini alphabet wooden stamps that I have wanted for months and they don’t sell via their online store, so now I can do the stamping on my art journal pages with a better size lettering.

matalan hobbycraft
Should I stay or should I go?

Today’s art journal page took a lot of working through. I genuinely had no idea what to do today. I didn’t even start it until about 2 pm, and I finished it around 7, no I didn’t spend 5 hours on it, I also cooked tea and drove the boy to Tennis and back. But it probably did take me longer than I wanted. I guess that’s what happens when you make something without planning, and without following a tutorial! I am so used to spending an hour or two watching and playing along to a video, that actual work involved in thinking up a page (or 4) is much harder. I did a half cut out Dragon, this was harder than I expected and I should really have left some more structure to him, the boy has named him “Flappy Dragon”. I made a journal note card for the pocket, and on the back I wrote 9 facts about St George, which I got from English Heritage website.

st georges day page 1
St Georges Day page 1
st georges day page 2
St Georges Day page 2 Showing full spread and “Flappy Dragon”
st georges day page 4
St Georges Day page 4 – Pocket and hidden journal card
St Georges day page 5
St Georges day page 5 Showing Journal Card and Facts

The only other thing of note today is that we are seriously considering a holiday home near the coast. What started as a throw away comment last week is becoming a hot topic, and we now have several alerts setup for RightMove , we even went to view a property today! It would be lovely to have something to look forward to for this year, we really don’t think foreign travel is going to be a possibility again this year, and if the UK can keep the R down, and things stay “open” it would be nice to have somewhere to go. We are all a little bored with our own back garden.

Well that’s it for today, its time to get our daughter from Guides and then our evening can start. I’m planning to art, Hubby is planning to drive around an Xbox racetrack, we both plan on a glass of wine!

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.

Day 22 Time to Escape

I really am amazed that I have managed to keep this going for 22 days. Its a big ask every day to read and comment on other blogs and to then also write my own, and to have something interesting to say. I do wonder what will happen at the end of the month. Will I carry on reading other blogs, will I carry on writing my own. I try to read everyone’s pages, but there are so many its not possible. I do accept that’s why Effy tells you to limit it to just 3 blogs, but there are so many interesting people on the blog along I want to follow them all!

Some websites are easier to comment on than others, I have had to create many accounts on many blog sites just to comment and some (WIX I am looking at you here) I have had to install the app so I can comment as doing it via the web page fails every time, seeing the comments from other bloggers I am not alone in this issue. The positive side to this is as long as I have worked out how to follow a blog, they are all there in the app and I can go to them easily. Googles’ own Blogger is a good web based blog system, but you need an account, and as soon as you signup it wants you to write a blog. The Blogger app is awful and only good for the writer not the follower, so I have to remember to go to the blogger link via the Google Chrome link and find anyone on my reading list.. not very intuitive. The best I have found so far is the WordPress app, its so easy to follow blogs via web pages and comment via the app and you get notifications of new comments, posts, likes etc – well as long as you have an account and are signed in. All this is mute at the moment where we are posting in the FB group – but I want longevity of this so I am trying to work my way through the issues.

Anyway, enough moaning – here is my art journal page for today.

Today I decided to go a little different and do a cut about page, almost a mini journal within a journal. It has a cover, a middle section with a cut about page and a final page. I guess my inspiration has come from something I saw ages ago by the artist Denise Lush this is my version today, its been building a while in my head. I had a need for blues today, the image of the lady is a photocopy of an image from an old CALM magazine. I brayered the pages with 3 blues and a white acrylic paint, then I collaged various papers and cut outs, some from collage paper I’ve previously downloaded and the little flowers are mine that I drew and cut out and added some watercolour, I also added some fabric scraps as it just felt it needed it. I found some quotes that spoke to me today, in searching for inspiration I have found the poet Alexandra Vasiliu I wanted to fill the pages with her poetry, maybe one day I will, she writes some beautiful stuff. I used one quote from her, and one from Maya Angelou

art journal page 1
art journal page 1
art journal page 2
art journal page 2
art journal page 3
art journal page 3

Well I think I have had quite a productive morning so far, I can smell the bread is finished baking, the slow cooker is bubbling away for tonights meal, hubby has been on a zoom call all morning so I have had time to play in the journal and write the blog and its only 11:30 am. I think I will publish this for today, maybe it means I will have more to talk about tomorrow!

Enjoy your day

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.

Day 21, Lollipop

It’s the tail end of day 21, and I have been very much “offline” today. I read and commented on some blogs this morning, but I have been away from all things social media today – very unlike me!

My Notebook challenge today, was done in my Scribble & Dot notebook and used Sharpies to create the design. I used a stencil to make the arches then hand drew the mandala shapes and wrote the date in bubble writing. The paper is thinner, and the sharpie did bleed through as expected, however it also in a couple of places bled onto the next page too. I really should remember to add a protector sheet between the page! I am all about the blues and purples at the moment – apparently they are the colours of the wild woman archetype phase – and I am most definitely in that phase!

April 21 S&D Sharpie
April 21 S&D Sharpie

My April LollipopBoxClub subscription kit arrived yesterday and the theme is “Good Vibes”. I didn’t get to open it until today and OMG there is so much fun stuff in it! It is definitely worth the cost if you are into this sort of thing. I have pretty much spent the day reading the blog and watching videos from the creative team to get ideas for making pages from the kit. I am trying to decide if I want to subscribe or not. I’m not a writer journaller so I do wonder what the use for me would be. I am beginning to at least evaluate my subscriptions with the practical aspects rather than “ooh that’s pretty, I must have it!” I love art journalling but doing it for memory making is new for me so I am not sure whether its my “thing”. I decided to put the kit into its own journal – it’s one I have made recently. It’s not great, it’s an early model of my “Donna” journal, but it’s mine so that’s what counts right?

  • April Lollipop Kit out of the box (1)
    April Lollipop Kit out of the box
  • good vibes page 1 (1)
    good vibes page 1
  • good vibes page 2 (1)
    good vibes page 2
  • good vibes page 3 (1)
    good vibes page 3
  • good vibes page 4 (1)
    good vibes page 4
  • good vibes page 5 (1)
    good vibes page 5
  • Good Vibes page 6 (1)
    Good Vibes page 6

I was definitely on a “CBA” type of day. We didn’t do our walk today because we couldn’t be bothered, which is ridiculous because we do no more than 3 miles at a lunchtime walk, I just couldn’t get the oomph together to go out. But I did compensate slightly by doing a SMALL amount of gardening, as the garden bin gets emptied tomorrow and it needed some thing in it!

Well thats me for the day, the CBA is still here, and it wants feeding with chocolate… hmmmmm

Until tomorrow TTFN